


Dear Whoever You Might Be

by smaragdbird



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, M/M, Self Loathing, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, ambiguous bodhi/galen relationship, ambiguous k2so/cassian relationship, luke is such an optimist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-27
Updated: 2017-01-27
Packaged: 2018-09-20 03:56:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9474617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smaragdbird/pseuds/smaragdbird
Summary: Bodhi often gazes at the worlds written on his wrist and try to take courage from them and from the idea that someone out there is waiting to meet him.Luke often traces the words written on his shoulder, silently promising to them that he'll get out of this force-saken dust ball of a planet to look for them soon.On the way to Scarif, Bodhi looks at Chirrut and Baze, huddled together, and silently asks his soulmate for forgiveness - he knows that this is a suicide mission.Before taking the shot that will destroy the Death Star, Luke centers himself by thinking of his soulmate and the connection they share - he's not letting himself killed, not when they still haven't met.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [this ](http://rogueonekink.dreamwidth.org/1084.html?thread=382524#cmt382524) prompt

“You’re Bodhi Rook. You’re the pilot.” Bodhi had often wondered how the words would sound when his soulmate would say them. It sounded as if his soulmate would already know who he was when they met. But would they sound happy or rather disappointed or maybe even disgusted. His mother had certainly sounded disappointed when he had signed up for the Imperial flight school in their sector. And his sister had spat the words, “You want to be a pilot so badly you’re betraying your own family, huh?” at him with disgust. It had been the last time he talked to her.

For the first few weeks at flight school he had entertained the thought of becoming a famed TIE pilot, of rising through the ranks and becoming the pilot of the Empire. He imagined his soulmate saying those words with awe in their voice. “You’re Bodhi Rook. You’re the pilot.”

Those dreams were crushed very quickly. He was average at best in any of his classes and average wasn’t good enough to advance to becoming a fighter pilot. At the end of two years of basic training they gave him the rank of ensign and a cargo shuttle and Bodhi went back to thinking that his soulmate would sound disappointed when they met. 

He got on with the other cargo pilots well enough. Many of them had started from the same position as him, had come from occupied worlds and had gone to flight school to get a job, any job. They shared the boredom of long hauls and tips on getting away from pirates. They went out drinking and played cards and made stupid dares during the few precious hours of downtime they had when they were planetside.

It wasn’t the worst job, sometimes he even started to like it. At least he got to see something of the galaxy and over the years he gained a reputation for being reliable. His superiors cleared him for places like Scarif and Eadu, top secret Imperial facilities, and slowly the imaginary voice of his soulmate didn’t sound disappointed anymore but merely like they were stating a fact. 

Meeting Galen Erso changed that but meeting Galen Erso changed everything. If your soulmate’s first words weren’t written on your skin, Bodhi would’ve sworn Galen was his. It shouldn’t be possible for anyone but your soulmate to have such an impact on your life.

But Galen wasn’t his soulmate and when Bodhi found out what was happening on Eadu, what he was complicit in, the words his actual soulmate would one day say to him sounded like the last words his sister had ever said to him, full of disgust and he deserved every bit of it.

/

“You’re the hero, not me.” Or rather “em ton, oreh eht re’uoY” as Luke saw them when he read them in the mirror since his soulmate’s first words were written on his shoulder. They never failed to cheer him up, no matter what had happened. His soulmate thought he was a hero, Luke though giddily every time he traced them. To them, whoever they were, he wasn’t just their soulmate, he was their hero too before they even met.

It meant he would do something extraordinary in the future. He wouldn’t just be a moisture farmer, he’d do something that his soulmate would consider praise-worthy. Maybe he’d save their life or the life of someone they loved. 

Luke was only concerned about the second part of his words. The ‘not me’ part. He couldn’t imagine why his soulmate would put themselves down like that. But he already had his reply ready. He’d say “You’re a hero to me”, and that would hopefully make them smile and they could live happily ever after.

Year after year he clung to this hope, to these words. Someone out there thought he was a hero. Someone out there was meant just for him. Year after year when his friends left one by one to go to one of the specialised schools or the academy or the military while his uncle kept him on the farm with one excuse or another, Luke traced those words on his shoulder and promised himself that one day he would leave Tatooine and find them. He would be the hero they deserved.

Instead it was as they all said. If you wanted to make destiny laugh, tell her about your plans. Part of him was glad everything happened so quickly between going to find old Ben Kenobi about the droid’s message and leaving Tattoine to free a princess from the Empire with a scoundrel and a Wookie in a ship that could be charitably described as a piece of junk. Or else he might have had time to realise that the price of him leaving Tattoiine as he had always wanted was the lives of his aunt and uncle.

Luke didn’t know what was worse, that he would’ve given the Empire the droids had they asked, or to realise that the Empire he had wanted to join as a pilot, had so little regard for its inhabitants that they hadn’t bothered to ask.

For a few hours he believed that Leia was going to be his soulmate that he was going to save her from the Death Star, from the Empire and be her hero. When it turned out not to be true he couldn’t even be disappointed because the look on Han’s face the first time Leia spoke to him was too funny to be sad.

/

The atmosphere in the shuttle was tense. None of them had any illusions what this unsanctioned run on Scarif to steal the Death Star plans meant. They didn’t need K-2SO giving them the odds to know that this was a suicide run.

“Bodhi?” K-2SO had waited until Jyn had climbed down. Bodhi got the impression that the two didn’t like each other much. “Can I ask you something?”

Despite meeting him maybe a day ago, Bodhi already knew how unlike K-2SO it was to ask if he could ask a question. “Sure”, Bodhi replied, bracing himself for whatever K-2SO was about to ask.

“Did you ever find your soulmate?”

The question cut right to his heart. “No”, Bodhi swallowed around his suddenly dry throat. “No, I didn’t. And now I won’t. Did you?” He asked before he realised that he was speaking with a droid.

“I have Cassian, that’s more than any other droid ever had”, K-2SO replied. “And at least we’re going to die together, for something that’s worth it.”

Bodhi didn’t say anything for a while but then he asked, “Do you think it would be easier to die if I had already met my soulmate?”

“Why don’t you ask them?” K-2SO nodded towards Chirrut and Baze who were sitting in the back. Bodhi hadn’t noticed them before and it didn’t look like they noticed anything but each other. Could he have had that? Would his soulmate have looked at him like Baze looked at Chirrut, like he was the only thing in the universe that mattered? Would’ve his soulmate smiled like Chirrut did at whatever Baze had just whispered into his ear? It was like looking at the sun and hurt just as much, so Bodhi looked away.

“But if you ask me”, K-2SO continued, “I don’t think anyone wants to die whether with their soulmate or without them. But there are things that matter more.”

Yes, Bodhi thought, and that was why he was here, why all of them where here. But it wasn’t just that he had never met his soulmate, would never find out how those first words would sound like coming from them. By dying he was preventing them from meeting him to. In a few hours at most someone somewhere in the galaxy would feel the pain of their words fading from their body.

He threw another look at Baze and Chirrut over his shoulder then he looked down at his wrist and whispered, “I’m sorry”, before he took the ship out of hyperspace.

/

As he was flying down the trench Luke tried not to let his emotions overwhelm him. He was the last one left, this was their last chance. If he didn't hit the target, if he didn't destroy the Death Star they’d all be dead. He pulled down the targeting computer, remembering the words written across his shoulder. "You're the hero, not me." If he didn't make the hit he wouldn't be a hero, he would never meet the person he had longed to meet all his life. His aunt and his uncle, Ben, Biggs they all would have died in vain. And his soulmate would feel the pain of losing him without ever having met him in the first place.

"Use the Force Luke."

Was that Ben's voice he was hearing? But it couldn’t be. Ben was dead.

"Trust the Force Luke."

The target was getting closer. He only had one chance. 

"Use the Force."

What he was considering was insane. Maybe that was why he was hearing voices too. But something inside him told him it was the right decision. "You're the hero, not me." He was not going to pass up his chance, he was going to meet his soulmate, he was going to be the hero they deserved.

"Red Five what's wrong? Why did you switch off your target computer?"

"Everything's fine", Luke said. And if it was not, if he really had gone crazy right now well then he wouldn't have to live with the consequences.

"You're the hero, not me." Luke concentrated on these words, poured all he felt, all his hope and dreams into them. He felt calm. He had never felt calmer or more certain of himself or of his choices than in this moment. And when he fired it was as if for a split second he could see his soulmate. It wasn't a lasting image, nothing he could've recounted about their features and yet he was sure he had seen them.

He pulled up his ship. If the torpedoes hit he shouldn't be anywhere near the Death Star and if they didn’t hit it wouldn't matter where he died. The moment seemed to last forever, stretched beyond even the worst time dilation as if the entire life of the universe from start to finish was happening in that one moment.

Behind him the death star exploded into billions of parts. He had done it. Relief and joy crashed through him, he could hear Han cheering over the coms and Luke realized that he had done it. He had become a hero. 

/

Bodhi kept glancing at Luke, the pilot who had brought down the Death Star. He was standing a few feet away with the two co-pilots of the Millennium Falcon. Having been a shuttle pilot up until a week ago Bodhi had heard a lot of stories about Han Solo and Chewbacca and yet it was Luke who kept drawing his attention.

Maybe it was just his nerves. The victory ceremony was about to start any moment and Bodhi had never felt more out of place. A part of him felt that their losses had been too high to really be able to celebrate and the rest of him simply didn’t like drawing attention, never had. But of course Jyn had insisted he would walk with her at the front because, in her words, “You’re a fucking hero so act like it.”

“You could go over and talk to him”, Baze interrupted Bodhi’s thoughts. “Instead of staring. Heard that’s impolite.”

“Who?” Bodhi replied despite knowing that he couldn’t fool Baze.

“Leave him be, Baze”, Chirrut said. “Their time will come soon. The Force is strong with him. He’ll be a great Jedi.”

Jedi, the word resonated in Bodhi. He had been five when the Jedi purge had happened and he had never met any of them. But Luke had a lightsaber so that meant he had to be one of them.

As if on cue Luke turned around, saw them, smiled and even raised his hand to wave. Bodhi was about to wave back when he realised that Luke must have meant the gesture for Baze and Chirrut, people he had actually met.

“There you are”, Jyn appeared suddenly next to him. “They’re ready for us. Come on.” She grabbed his arm and dragged him to the door. Jyn was very unlike Galen in most things but she was just as unstoppable. Bodhi’s chest tightened when he thought about Galen. He should be here with them. After all it had been his dedication, his courage that allowed them to be here today.

Fortunately the ceremony itself didn’t drag on for too long. It seemed that neither Mon Mothma nor Leia Organa had a tendency for long speeches. The speech that each had given, one to thank Rogue One and one to thank Luke, Han and Chewbacca, had been short and to the point and was followed by a minute of silence for those they had lost.

Bodhi thought of Galen again when he felt Jyn squeeze his hand and when he looked at her and saw her sad, brave smile he knew she was thinking the same.

His plan after this had been to stick close to his friends and leave at the earliest possibility. He still didn’t feel like celebrating and on top of that he didn’t know any of the people here. Of the rebels that had flown to Scarif with them, none had made it back alive. He had only known them for a few hours and yet he wished they were here too.

Cassian and K-2SO obviously knew people and it turned out that Jyn had had a run in with the Millennium Falcon’s pilots so Bodhi was left with Chirrut and Baze. He made a quick excuse to get something to drink when he saw Luke coming over to them.

What he hadn’t anticipated was that Luke followed him. Luke smiled at him, wide and blindingly bright like the sun and said, “You’re Bodhi Rook. You’re the pilot.”

Bodhi didn’t fully register what Luke had said until he had already replied with, “You’re the hero, not me.”

Luke’s smile became impossibly brighter. “A lot of people disagree with you”, he said, touching the medal on Bodhi’s chest with his fingertips. “Me included. I’ve heard so much about you. It’s great to finally meet you.”

“People exaggerate”, Bodhi said to buy himself some time. It couldn’t be...his soulmate couldn’t be the saviour of the galaxy and only Jedi left in existence. This had to be some kind of mistake.

“I don’t think that’s possible in your case”, Luke grinned. “Can I ask you something? Your words are they...I mean...I’m pretty sure I’ve got yours, so...”

Bodhi rolled up his sleeve, half fearing that this was some kind of dream. “What are yours?”

“You’re the hero, not me”; Luke repeated Bodhi’s words. “Which I completely disagree with. I’d show but they’re on my shoulder and there hasn’t been enough alcohol for the stripping to happen yet. I mean...” Luke blushed bright red when he realised what he had said.

Bodhi laughed. “It’s nice to meet you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me [ here](http://smaragdbird.tumblr.com/) on tumblr


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